Following former president Rodrigo Duterte's arrest, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged Filipinos to exercise restraint, avoid division, and prioritize truth and critical thinking amid rising tensions.

In a post on CBCP News on March 16, Villegas warned that the nation’s divisions could deepen in the face of this new controversy, urging the public not to add to the turmoil.

“As if we do not have an excess of reasons to be divided as a nation, here is fate giving us another explosive situation,” Villegas said.

“Let us widen the space for sobriety,” he added.

Villegas emphasized the importance of truth as the foundation of public discourse, urging Filipinos to verify their sources of information.

“With sobriety hopefully comes critical thinking,” he said.

“So much misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information are in cyberspace. The only basis for our words and actions must be the truth and nothing else,” he added.

Villegas, who is also the former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, warned against further division, likening falsehoods to the work of “Satan, the prince of lies and sower of division.”

He further called on Filipinos to reject the temptation to seek vengeance or take pleasure in other’s misfortune.

“It does not help to gloat and rejoice in the sufferings of others,” he said.

Villegas also urged the faithful to use the Lenten season as an opportunity for self-reflection and to renew their sense of patriotism, grounded in faith rather than partisan politics.

“The path to heroism begins with contrition,” he said.